Final Freedom
The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment

Focusing on the Thirteenth Amendment, this book examines emancipation after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

Michael Vorenberg (Author)

9780521543842, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 July 2004

324 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.44 kg

'This study is a remarkable piece of historical research and writing … A short review can barely do justice to the virtues of this outstanding work. Subtly argued and elegantly written, almost every page brims with fresh insights.' The Historian

This book examines emancipation after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Focusing on the making and meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, Final Freedom looks at the struggle among legal thinkers, politicians, and ordinary Americans in the North and the border states to find a way to abolish slavery that would overcome the inadequacies of the Emancipation Proclamation. The book tells the dramatic story of the creation of a constitutional amendment and reveals an unprecedented transformation in American race relations, politics, and constitutional thought. Using a wide array of archival and published sources, Professor Vorenberg argues that the crucial consideration of emancipation occurred after, not before, the Emancipation Proclamation; that the debate over final freedom was shaped by a level of volatility in party politics underestimated by prior historians; and that the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment represented a novel method of reform that transformed attitudes toward the Constitution.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. Slavery's constitution
2. Freedom's constitution
3. Facing freedom
4. Debating freedom
5. The key note of freedom
6. The war within a war: emancipation and the election of 1864
7. A King's cure
8. The contested legacy of constitutional freedom
Appendix: votes on antislavery amendment
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Law [L], Slavery & abolition of slavery [HBTS], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]